E-books And Self-publishing Roundup, February 7, 2013

When fast radio bursts (FRBs) were first detected in 2007, they were a complete enigma. As their name implies, these events involve a very brief eruption of radio emissions and then typically silence, though a few objects appear to be capable of sending out multiple bursts. By obtaining enough data from lots of individual bursts, researchers gradually put the focus on magnetars, versions of neutron stars that have intense magnetic fields. But we still don't know whether a magnetar is a requirement for an FRB or if the events can be triggered by less magnetized neutron stars as well.

As many of us celebrated the year-end holidays, a small group of researchers worked overtime tracking a startling discovery: At least 33 browser extensions hosted in Google’s Chrome Web Store, some for as long as 18 months, were surreptitiously siphoning sensitive data from roughly 2.6 million devices. The compromises came to light with the discovery by data loss prevention service Cyberhaven that a Chrome extension used by 400,000 of its customers had been updated with code that stole their sensitive data. ‘Twas the night before Christmas The malicious extension, available as version 24.10.4, was available for 31 hours, starting on December 25 at 1:32 AM UTC to Dec 26 at 2:50 AM UTC.

Welcome to Edition 7.25 of the Rocket Report! Happy New Year! It's a shorter edition of the newsletter this week because most companies (not named Blue Origin, this holiday season) took things easier over the last 10 days. But after the break we're back in the saddle for the new year, and eager to see what awaits us in the world of launch. As always, we welcome reader submissions, and if you don't want to miss an issue, please subscribe using the box below (the form will not appear on AMP-enabled versions of the site).

Multiple important refinance rates have moved down. Refinancing makes sense if you can get a lower interest rate on your home loan.

Mixed reality is already here, and the next step for headsets and glasses is a wave of AI that experiences it alongside us -- raising a whole new set of questions and concerns.

A couple of important mortgage rates moved down. It's still expensive to buy a house, but any dip in rates is good news in the housing market.